


Fear

by Lost_Elf



Category: Borderlands (Video Games)
Genre: Comfort, Established Relationship, Fear, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, I give up, Light Angst, M/M, Panic Attacks, Phobias, R&D fucked up, Tags Are Hard, extreme phobia and panic, what even is this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-05
Updated: 2020-01-05
Packaged: 2021-02-27 08:00:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,368
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22133671
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lost_Elf/pseuds/Lost_Elf
Summary: “Alright, ladies, tell me what happened, now!” he orders. The coordinates Rhys sent him point towards a small supply room on the other side of the laboratory.Said laboratory looks like it was eaten and spat out by a skag. It’s covered in slime, some of which is moving and being chased around by desperate scientists. Everything smells, it’s dirty and probably very slippery.“W-we are not sure, s-sir,” one of the scientists answers. “There was supposed to be a meeting with Mr Strongfork, but there was a sudden power outage, and I left to fix it, and… then… he was gone…”“Gone?” Jack asks, pointing his gun at the man.“I-I-I don’t know what happened! Some of the power fields must’ve stopped working and these little dudes escaped, and… ate… the Vice President…?”If Jack didn’t have a gun in one hand and an ECHO in the other, he would facepalm himself. “You bunch of idiots!” he yelled.*****aka, Jack sees/hears Rhys truly panic and cry for the first time ever. But the reason isn't kidnapping, murder or dying puppies, this time.
Relationships: Handsome Jack/Rhys (Borderlands)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 106





	Fear

**Author's Note:**

> So, I wrote four phobias on four pieces of paper, let someone draw one, and wrote about it. It was "mess", and I improvised and made it into a phobia of slimy and greasy things. I know a person who is like that, so it exists.
> 
> This is not my best work, but writing it made me feel good, and why should I put it into the metaphorical drawer, when I can put it on internet? It's free! :D

“Jack? Ja— _Jack_?” Rhys’ voice was interrupted by panting, a little wheezing as he obviously had troubles breathing. “Jack?!” he sounded beyond panic, slightly whimpering on the other end of the line. But at the same time, he was whispering. Is Rhys hiding?

Finally, Jack’s brain started working again. He froze when he heard the fearful voice of his boyfriend, calling him in the middle of what should have been a meeting for Rhys and nap time for Jack. “Rhys?” he answers hesitantly. He doesn’t know what danger Rhys got himself into, and he doesn’t want to endanger him by speaking too loudly.

“Jack!” Rhys exclaims lowly. “I— I have a problem, Jack…” his voice trails into another whimper.

This is bad, so bad. Jack is on his feet immediately, reaching for a weapon. Sure, Rhys is no hero, but the CEO never saw him like this. He faced kidnapers with a smile, tased the shit out of them while cracking lame jokes. Without batting an eye, he shot a board member straight in the face when they pulled out a knife at Jack. Whatever he is facing now, it’s bad, really, really bad.

“Where are you, Rhys?” Jack asks, voice low as he breaks into a light jog towards R&D where Rhys should be now.

“I-i-i-in a c-closet,” Rhys laughs nervously. “I-I need help.”

Closet? A hiding spot? Pretty bad. Maybe he didn’t have time. Jack speeds up. “Where exactly, baby? R&D?” Instead of an answer he gets Rhys’ coordinates pinged, and so he follows that. “What’s going on, Rhysie?” he asks, hiding his own fear, showing Rhys that he can be his hero with calm words.

Rhys whimpers again, but then he swallows audibly and says: “S-something went wrong in one of the cages, I think. _Jack_ …” He seems to be too caught up with panic for a while, but then he calms his breathing enough to say: “Please, please, I need you, come quick!”

As if Jack ever was not coming for him! “I’m on my way baby, don’t worry,” he assures him. “Right behind the corner. I’ll be there in a minute.”

Another whimper. “Jack… Please, don’t touch the things. I-I can’t, please. I can’t…”

Jack freezes for a second, staring at his ECHO dumbly. Rhys is crying. He’d never seen him cry, and now he is crying in fear. With new energy, Jack bursts through the door to see five or so frightened scientists, clearly shocked that he is there.

“Alright, ladies, tell me what happened, _now!_ ” he orders. The coordinates Rhys sent him point towards a small supply room on the other side of the laboratory.

Said laboratory looks like it was eaten and spat out by a skag. It’s covered in slime, some of which is _moving_ and being chased around by desperate scientists. Everything smells, it’s dirty and probably very slippery.

“W-we are not sure, s-sir,” one of the scientists answers. “There was supposed to be a meeting with Mr Strongfork, but there was a sudden power outage, and I left to fix it, and… then… he was gone…”

“Gone?” Jack asks, pointing his gun at the man.

“I-I-I don’t know what happened! Some of the power fields must’ve stopped working and these little dudes escaped, and… ate… the Vice President…?”

If Jack didn’t have a gun in one hand and an ECHO in the other, he would facepalm himself. “You bunch of _idiots_!” he yelled. “Everybody get out of here before I change my mind and kill you all!”

Five scientists ran past him, some of them still clutching the slimy creatures in their hands. Jack made sure none of them touched him, and he stepped into the lab very careful not to slip and minding his step to get as little of the slime on him as possible.

“Rhys?” he knocked on the door when he reached it, gun and ECHO put away.

“I’m-m here,” came a soft reply. “D-don’t open the door,” Rhys pleaded quickly, just as Jack’s hand touched the handle.

The CEO sighed. He was beginning to understand the panic, though he needed to make sure, because it _was_ unbelievable. “Rhysie… are you hurt?”

There was a silence too long, and Jack almost opened the door to check on his boyfriend. But then he heard a faint _no_ followed by a sob and panting.

“Are you… scared?” he asks carefully.

A whimper, and then: “Yes. Jack, please, I-I-I n-need your help, please, I—” the younger man cuts himself off when he runs out of air, and he starts coughing and gasping, trying to get the panic under control again.

“It’s alright, kitten,” Jack says calmly. “I’m here. You are safe.” He shoots one of the slimy things when it makes its way too close to him. It doesn’t stop, but it changes its course. That’s not good enough of a plan. “I’ll get you out of here, ok?”

“Oh, god, please Jack, get me out!” Rhys begs, breaking down again and sobbing.

Jack knew about Rhys’ phobia. He got to know this side of him when they lived together for only a week. As he was putting on the gel that goes under his mask, Rhys walked into the bathroom, and when Jack jokingly made a grabby motion with his hand, Rhys panicked, truly panicked, and ran out. He later explained that for some reason he can’t handle slimy, slick, greasy and similar substances, to the point it triggers panic attacks in him when he touches something disgusting.

“Jack?” Rhys whimpered. Coming up with a plan took him too long.

“Okay, pumpkin, listen to me,” he began. “What are you wearing?”

There was a second of silence, and then Rhys answered, voice more hesitant than panicky for a while. “Shirt and pants.”

“No jacket? Blazer? Tie?” Jack groaned inwardly. This will be hard.

“Nuh.”

“Okay, then take off your shirt,” he instructed, “and tie it around your head.”

After a lot of shuffling and thuds, Rhys’ fingers tapped the door. “I-it’s done. But… Jack, I don’t like it.”

“It’s the best we’ve got,” Jack brushed it away as he opened the door. Rhys was standing there, but he backed away as the slightly warmer air from the lab hit him. He was shaking, unnaturally pale and half naked. “Hi,” Jack said with a smirk that his boyfriend couldn’t see, because his eyes were covered by his shirt.

“H-hi,” the pale man tried to reply.

“Let’s get out of here, huh?” Jack reached for Rhys’ organic hand and pulled him forward slightly, but the VP took another step back.

“I can’t, Jack,” he shook his head. “There are the _things_ , and the— the—” he gagged and never got the world _slime_ out.

“You can, darling, and you will,” Jack used firmer tone, pulling Rhys forward again. “I won’t let you touch anything; you know I won’t. I’ll lead you out, take you home, and we will take the rest of the day off.”

Rhys nodded and let Jack lead him to the edge of the room, but as soon as his foot met a slightly slippery surface, he froze and refused to move. His breathing quickened so much Jack worried he would faint, and that was not good.

“Rhysie, baby, come on. I’m here, nothing can happen. I’ll buy you new shoes, okay? We will throw these off right behind the door.” The promises seem to work, and Jack manages to pull Rhys another couple feet forward before he tugs his hand free.

“I can’t, Jack! The things. They are there and— I’m never gonna get this off of myself! It will be there forever, I’ll be forever dirty and greasy!” he chokes a little on the words, slightly backing away, but then he realises that there is no way back. “It won’t go away! I will drown in it, you can’t wash of slime, it will stick to me forever!” he keeps panicking.

Jack sighs and takes his hand again. He needs to fight himself not to say the first thing on his mind. Because this all seems like a joke to him. His boyfriend is no damsel in distress. He saw him casually wipe off blood of his face with Jack’s tie ( _hot_ ), and he saw him put out a fire in the kitchen while laughing at Jack, he saw him put up bounties on the heads of bandits who sent him death threats. And now he was paralysed with fear.

But he knew better than to doubt this fear. Rhys was so ashamed when Jack found him breathing heavily on their bed after he threatened him with the gel. It took trust and courage to tell the heroic CEO about his irrational fear. And the Jack wasn’t about to break this trust.

“Come on, baby. We are nearly in the half,” he lies. Which is something different than breaking trust. This is necessary.

“Already?” Rhys asked, a bit of doubt, but mostly hope in his voice.

“Almost,” Jack assured him with a gentle hand squeeze, and they moved another couple feet. But then one of the blobs of slime decided to cross their path. It was fascinating that it didn’t make a sound, none at all.

However, Rhys _did_ make a sound when the tip of his foot met the slime. He squealed and threw himself at Jack, screaming _kill it_ , _kill it_ , _KILL IT_.

Jack did, of course. He’d do anything Rhys wanted from him. And so, he shot the creature enough times for it to resemble the slimy paths it left behind more than a living blob.

“It’s definitely dead,” he noted with pride, but Rhys wasn’t calming down. Quite the opposite, actually.

“Jack, i-it’s on my f-face. On m-my face!” he squeaked, both hands clutching Jack’s arm, while the rest of his body kept still as he tried not to move the part of his face that had a tiny splotch of goo on it.

“No, it isn’t,” Jack lied. He bit his tongue, afterwards, because it was stupid, but it came automatically. “There is nothing.”

Rhys was unsure. “B-but I feel it! Felt it…”

“There is nothing, pumpkin,” Jack repeated. “I don’t see anything on your face. You probably just felt the breeze from the air conditioning, and your panicked brain made up the rest.”

“B-but—”

“Which side?” Jack asked quickly. “Where did you feel it?”

“L-left,” Rhys answered. He still didn’t move, and Jack felt a bruise forming where the cybernetic gripped him. “Cheek bone.”

Jack knew well where the thing was, but he placed his thumb two inches to the side, slowly sliding it in the general direction. He managed to pick the goo up and resisted the urge to cringe or wipe it into his pants. “There. Nothing was there,” he lied. “Feel like you can walk now?”

Rhys nodded, and so they walked around the – _still_ _alive, what the fuck_?! – blob. When Rhys lost courage again, a mere metre before they would be out of the damn room, Jack just pulled him forward, using his advantage of height and weight.

“There, we are out,” he announced as Rhys panted, face hidden in his chest. “You did good, kitten. So brave,” he praised him as he slowly calmed. Rhys wasn’t usually fond of sweet talk like this, but right now, he looked like he needed it.

The door to the lab slid closed, and Jack helped Rhys remove his shoes, and then removed his own. With disgust, he noted the slimy splotches on their pants.

“Do you want to take off the shirt?” he asked. “But there is a little of the thing on my pants,” he warned. He hoped that Rhys won’t feel a sudden surge of courage and agree, because then he would see that the damage on his clothes is much worse.

“N-no, if you don’t mind,” he answered and squirmed. That was a good thing, probably. He wasn’t panicking anymore if he was able to feel shame.

“Good, let’s go, then,” Jack took his hand and they both walked in their socks only to the elevator.

They didn’t meet anyone on their way, Jack made sure to make it that way. He really didn’t want to be seen with his boyfriend scared shitless and blindfolded, and Rhys probably wouldn’t be happy to be seen naked.

In their penthouse, Jack helped Rhys out of this pants and socks, and he stripped himself before he led him into the bathroom. Rhys finally dared to take the shirt off his head when Jack ran the bath. He gave him a sheepish look, shame probably winning over.

“I’m sorry for this, Jack,” he said, squirming. He refused to look anywhere but forward, probably afraid that he would see slime somewhere. “I—”

“Don’t worry about it, pumpkin,” Jack came closer to brush Rhys’ face, but his currently wet hands wouldn’t probably feel good right now, so he didn’t do that. Instead, he carefully leaned to plant a soft kiss on his boyfriend’s lips. “I know what fear can be like.”

“No, you don’t,” Rhys chuckled.

“No, I don’t,” he laughed. “But I’ve seen people shit themselves just because I looked at them. Your phobia is pretty mild in my book.”

The younger man perked up at that, and he smiled. “Thank you.”

They sat in the bath together some time later, and Jack helped Rhys clean himself with a washcloth. The VP insisted to do many rounds of scrubs, and the CEO indulged him, only making sure Rhys doesn’t scrub himself too much and agitate the skin.

When Rhys finally deemed himself clean enough, Jack helped him into a bathrobe, and forced him to go and take a nap. It was usually the CEO who never stopped working and pulled his boyfriend out of the bed early in the morning, but today, the young man probably felt bad for all the work that had to be postponed because of him. It wasn’t until Jack threatened to tie him to the bed that he finally agreed to lie down. And he fell asleep before Jack was back with a glass of water.

* * *

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